Jockeys risk spinal injury each time they ride a horse, particularly during a race. Many jockeys have sustained serious and sometimes fatal injury by falling from their horse and/or by being crushed or trampled by a horse after a fall. Typically, other than a protective helmet and a rugged riding jacket, nothing operates to protect the jockey's body from such injury.
The physical forces of physics at work during a horse race are very large; and they do not favor the jockey. For example, an average horse weighs 1200 lbs, while a typical jockey weighs only 110 lbs. When such a horse lands on a jockey, a crushing blow is delivered to the body. Further, a horse's average racing speed is 32 or 33 mph. Most jockeys, if thrown from the horse, unfortunately land on their heads at approximately the same speed, thereby incurring a massive torque or shearing blow to the cervical spine, the area which is most susceptible to paralyzing injury.
From 1960-1994, the Jockeys Guild estimates that 2,500 jockey-related injuries occur each year, with an average of two deaths and 2.5 paralyzing injuries nationwide. As of mid-1995, the Jockeys Guild has classified 45 U.S. jockeys as being permanently disabled from their injuries. The Jockey's Guild classification does not list jockeys from other countries, some of which are very active in horse racing, and some of which offer little, if any, precautionary measures against injury, such as training and thoroughly-tested head-gear.
In addition to the pain and sorrows suffered by these jockeys and their families, the known risks associated with professional horse racing have resulted a substantial insurance liability. Accordingly, the race tracks around the United States are heavily insured as a protection against the riding accidents which will certainly occur, given enough time. In addition to being financially burdensome to the race track owners, the insurance policies and monetary settlements do little to comfort those jockeys, or their families, who are permanently injured by a fall.
Jockeys are not the only persons at risk. Casual horseback riders, hunters and professional jump competitors are also susceptible to similar injury. For example, Christopher Reeve, the well-known actor who played "Superman" in several movies, recently sustained a permanent compression injury to the spine during a head-long fall from his horse. He, like many other riders, is not expected to walk again.
Other sports and occupations offer comparable risks. Motorcyclists, for example, can easily incur spinal injury and death from an accident or fall from a motorcycle.
Spinal injuries resulting from motorcycling and horseback riding are ranked, respectively, as numbers 5 and 17 by the Birmingham National Spinal Cord Statistical Center. See, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. Given the large numbers of spinal injuries each year in the United States, these two sports are appropriately labled as "high risk" from insurers and other professionals.
It is, accordingly, an object of the invention to provide a jacket which operates to protect a user from a fall from a vehicle such as a horse or motorcycle.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a jockey jacket which actuates upon a detected fall from a horse, and which operates to protect the jockey's body, and particularly the neck, during the fall and subsequent trauma associated with the fall.
These and other objects will become apparent in the description which follows.